Chicago Photographer Captures Toll of Opioids, Homelessness

Winter in Chicago can be especially tough on the city’s homeless population. Photographer Lloyd DeGrane has spent a lot time with people living on Chicago streets.

He’s gotten to know them and he’s photographed them. But when he set out to cover homelessness three years ago, he says he didn’t realize just how closely he would also be looking at the opioid crisis.

Dec. 28: Cook County officials filed lawsuits this week against a half dozen drug companies and their subsidiaries, blaming them for aggressively marketing prescription painkillers that have led to a spike in overdose deaths.